The 10 people killed in the crash of a Bering Air flight in Western Alaska last week included a group of engineers from the Anchorage area working on a water plant, a teaching mentor from the Mat-Su and four Nome and Unalakleet residents, including the pilot and a school counselor.
The incident, the third fatal plane crash in the U.S. in less than a week, was one of Alaska’s deadliest in recent decades.
The sudden loss of so many triggered grief and shock, but also an upwelling of support as crowds in Western Alaska villages came out to welcome and comfort Bering Air crews as they flew in to their communities.
Authorities say the plane left Unalakleet on Thursday afternoon and disappeared more than 30 miles southeast of Nome, where radar showed the Cessna Caravan plunge at 3,400 feet. After an intense air and ground search, a team of U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers reached the wreckage on the sea ice of Norton Sound Friday and confirmed the deaths of all 10 people aboard.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred during spells of freezing rain in the Nome area. The agency sent a 9-member team from Washington, D.C. The NTSB’s chair, Jennifer Homendy, spent the weekend in Nome, returning to D.C. through Anchorage on Monday.
Bering Air suspended all flights Friday and returned to service Saturday.
“It is crucial for us to share with you that the decision to resume flying so soon is not taken lightly,” said a message posted to the air service’s website. “As the sole provider of essential air travel in our region, we are deeply aware of the critical needs of the traveling public — whether for medical appointments, accessing life-saving medications, or other urgent travel needs. We feel a deep responsibility to continue serving these needs, even as we cope with the profound impact of this tragedy.”
As flights returned to 32 Western Alaska communities, dozens of people in multiple villages came out to welcome Bering Air flights. In Kiana, community members held hands in a circle around a plane. In Noatak, residents in puffy coats sang a prayer while surrounding the pilot.
KNOM, the Nome radio station, invited people to share photos and posted pictures from Shishmaref and Savoonga, where a group "gathered at the airport Saturday to greet the incoming flight with Qagughmii’s song in St. Lawrence Island Yupik,“ the station reported.
In Koyuk, Christine Nassuk crocheted 10 colorful roses and handed them to longtime Bering Air pilot Larry Eggart after he landed there on Saturday afternoon.
Each rose represented one of the people on Flight 445.
Engineers on a mission
At least four of the people on that plane were returning from starting up a new water plant in Unalakleet, a community of nearly 700 about 150 miles southeast of Nome and 395 miles northwest of Anchorage.
“They’d been delayed for a few weeks because of weather. They tried to get out there a couple times before,” said Lee Holmes, general manager of Support Services of Alaska, one of the companies involved in the job. “So they were able to get out there Monday to get their work done.”
The group was supposed to leave Unalakleet on Wednesday but got weathered in again, Holmes said. “They got out Thursday.”
Eagle River resident JaDee Moncur, 52, Support Services' senior engineer, was on the flight, he said. So was Ian Hofmann, a 45-year-old from Anchorage who worked as an engineer for CRW Engineering Group.
Anchorage residents Rhone Baumgartner, 46, and Kameron Hartvigson, 41, were traveling back from Unalakleet where they had serviced a heat recovery system vital to the plant, according to their employer, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
Baumgarner was a former McGrath resident, according to KSKO public radio. Hartvigson had two teenage sons, according to a GoFundMe set up to benefit the boys.
Andrew Gonzalez, a 30-year-old power generation technician from Wasilla, had also just finished a job in Unalakleet, according to The Press Democrat. Gonzalez grew up in California and lived in Santa Rosa for most of his life before moving to Alaska in 2022, the paper reported.
Local residents and helpers
Four of those on the Bering Air flight were from Unalakleet or Nome.
The pilot of the aircraft was 34-year-old Chad Antill, who lived in Nome.
Antill had also owned a home in Wasilla and, prior to 2019, lived in Idaho, where he first earned his pilot’s license, according to public records, which also show Antill is survived by young children.
An employee who answered the phone at Bering Air on Monday said the company wasn’t taking questions from media.
Raised in Unalakleet, Talaluk Driscoll LaRoi Katchatag, 34, was a father of two young children.
“He loved his family with his whole heart and would do anything for them,” wrote Rachel Frankson, his former wife, in a fundraising request. “He was close to his parents and tried to provide as much as he (could) for them. He was close with his siblings and confided in every single one of them. He worked hard. He loved hard.”
Carol Mendiola Mooers, 48, worked as a counselor at the Unalakleet School.
“She worked in every classroom and she worked with every individual,” the school posted on its Facebook page. “She spent most of her lunch times with the students and almost every weekend supporting student activities … Carol will forever be a member of the Wolfpack in loving memory.”
She was traveling from Unalakleet to Nome to help bring students to Juneau and Anchorage for college tours, her son said on a fundraiser to help pay for the costs of transporting her remains home. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Mooers was married, had two sons and was a U.S. Army veteran.
Donnell Erickson, 58, lived in Nome and was a veteran of the U.S. Army and a graduate of Anchorage West High School. Erickson did mechanical work for the Bering Strait School District, which is headquartered in Unalakleet, according to Alaska Public Media.
He had three children and more grandkids, according to an online fundraiser. The family is planning two funeral services: one in Nome, the other at Fort Richardson with military honors, according to the GoFundMe request.
Liane Ryan, 52, was from Wasilla and was part of the Alaska Statewide Mentor Project, which hires retired teachers to work with first- and second-year educators in rural districts.
Ryan retired from Redington Jr./Sr. High School, where she taught STEM and science and coached volleyball. Friends described her as a dedicated volunteer, devoted friend and enthusiastic educator.
“Liane worked with some of our newer Nome Public Schools teachers a few years ago, and I had the pleasure of meeting with her whenever she flew into Nome,” Jamie Burgess, superintendent for Nome Public Schools, wrote in a post this week. “She had such a cheerful and bubbly personality and dedicated her post-retirement life to growing new teachers and encouraging them through those first incredibly tough years. She will be sorely missed.”